About

Greninja vs. Mewtwo was a popular debate topic among fans of Nintendo's most recent Super Smash Bros. crossover fighting game, similar to Ridley is Too Big. After a trailer for the game was released revealed Greninja, and not Mewtwo would be included in the game, some fans became upset with the character choice, but the debate was later put to rest when both characters were ultimately included.

Origin

On April 8, 2014, Nintendo released their newest trailer for the new Smash Bros, unveiling the Pokemon characters Charizard and Greninja.

Although Charizard was revealed early in the video, Greninja was shown as a mysterious silhouette for a large portion, which bore an uncanny similarity to another Pokemon character, Mewtwo. Mewtwo had been a popular character in Super Smash Bros. Melee, an earlier game in the series, and many fans had been clamoring for his return.

Upon seeing the silhouette, many viewers immediately assumed it was Mewtwo, an assumption bolstered by the blue energy the mysterious figure produced. Upon the reveal of the figure as the newcomer Greninja, many fans were disappointed.

Spread

Viewers were quick to share their reactions about the reveal, with many videos relating to Greninja's reveal appearing on YouTube the same day the trailer was released. Also on April 8th, YouTuber cobanermani456^[1] uploaded the trailer with his real time reactions recorded over it. He expresses excitement when he believes the shadowed character will be Mewtwo, and disappointment, but not anger, when it's revealed to be Greninja. The video quickly became one of the most popular reaction videos, gaining over 260,000 views within two months.

Other popular reaction videos uploaded the same day include TheCartoonGamer8000's^[4] video (below, left) which gained over 60,000 views as of June 2014, and The Chongo Show's^[5] video (below, left) which gained over 21,000 views as of June 2014.

Also on April 8th, a poll was posted on Smashboards^[6] which asked:

"Did Greninja steal Mewtwo's thunder?

As of June 2014, over 50% of respondents answered, "Why can't both co exist?"

On April 9th, Kotaku^[3] published an article titled "The Internet Reacts To New Smash Bros. Reveals," which highlighted the negative reactions to Greninja's inclusion, including tweets fans sent out expressing their disapointment.

Not all fans were disappointed by Greninja's inclusion. On April 10th, redditor samsparta21 started a thread on the /r/smashbros^[2] subreddit titled "Greninja's reveal makes perfect sense." Their post explained:

"Pokemon is too popular a series to not get a newcomer. If the only new character was Mewtwo, it would be just bringing back a character from Melee. There is a strong chance that Mewtwo will still be coming later."

On May 12th, Tumblr blog fyeahcontroversialcharacters^[7] also published a post titled "DEFENSE OF GRENINJA (SUPER SMASH BROS./POKEMON)," where it addressed all claims fans had against the inclusion of Greninja.

The controversy began to die down, but in October of 2014, the Smash community was blown away when during the Smash Bros 50 Fact Extravaganza livestream, Nintendo revealed that Mewtwo would arrive as the series' first DLC character. The outrage over his non-inclusion was now over, but fans began to patiently await the DLC.

The hype only grew when in spring of 2015, a trailer was released for the new character, showcasing his new appearance and an updated version of his Melee moveset. On April 15, 2015, Mewtwo was made available for free to Club Nintendo members who had registered both the 3DS and Wii U versions of Smash 4. Nearly two weeks later, on April 29, it was made available to the general public, with the price being $3.99 to unlock it in one version of the game, or $4.99 to unlock it in both versions. Now, fans of Mewtwo can use the character whenever they like, and the conflict is finally over.

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